My cousin Marvin owned one of the biggest and fastest-growing
businesses in Miami, a furniture store. I convinced him that
he needed to take a trip to Italy to check out the merchandise
himself, and because he was still single, he could check out
all the hot Italian women.
As Marvin was checking into a hotel he struck up an acquaintance
with a beautiful young lady... she only spoke Italian and he only
spoke English, so neither understood a word the other spoke.
He took out a pencil and a notebook and drew a picture of a taxi.
She smiled, nodded her head and they went for a ride in the park.
Later, he drew a picture of a table in a restaurant with a question
mark and she nodded, so they went to dinner.
After dinner he sketched two dancers and she was delighted. They
went to several nightclubs, drank champagne, danced and had a glorious
evening. It had gotten quite late when she motioned for the pencil and
drew a picture of a four-poster bed.
Marvin was dumbfounded, and to this day remarks to me that he's never
been able to understand how she knew he was in the furniture business.